'The Strain' Season 1 Episode 6 Recap: Ephraim Goodweather And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

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Hey, remember that time when a hungry vampire tore through a nursing home and start draining the elderly of their precious fluids? You know- last week on "The Strain?"

Apparently "The Strain" doesn't.

Look, it's not like "The Strain" is the most deadly serious show on TV. The subject matter is (vampires, Nazis, the inevitable bloodless death of the entire Earth), but it handles those subjects with equal parts horror and gleeful giggling. So "The Strain" isn't really a show we should be picking apart, plot point by plot point.

But that an old folks' home could be invaded by vampires, that the vampires could show off their six foot-long people drainers in full view of all the elderly (and, presumably, the employees), and not one word of that would leak to the outside world... it seems a little unbelievable.

Sure, the vampire invasion force has been messing with everyone's wifi and cell phone plans. But if Eph could go from being a CDC hero to FBI's Most Wanted in the span of like twelve-ish hours, there should probably be a some variation of "Horrifying Mutation Consumes Our Elderly" blaring on TV right after (or, preferably, before) the report on Eph.

Ok, no more nitpicking. Now, to move on to "Occultations" in earnest. Because this week, "The Strain" is all about the eclipse- an eclipse that's coming at the end of the hour, and promises a perfect living environment for a sewers' worth of bloodsuckers.

No more sewer life for these undead. Now, the vamps can take to the streets and enact whatever master plan the Master and Eichorst have had in mind this whole time.

And that means that "Occultations" is all eclipse build-up. And that, in turn, is all about our many characters being forced up against a solid wall of frustration.

Eph, by far, has it the worst. His sort-of wife not listen to reason and get Zack as far away from New York as possible (seriously, his entire job is knowing where and when to say "hey, there's a horrifying disease coming," and yet no one listens when he says this exact thing).

Making things worse is Matt, who decides on a whim to up his douche levels significantly and get Eph hauled away by the Feds.

It's frustrating, but hey, that's kind of the point of the episode. We watch everyone struggle and fail against vampires, and then when they all come together (which they start to do at the end of "Occultations"), it feels so very rewarding.